ETOBICOKE, Ontario – If the votes fall the right way, trainer Mark Casse could be in for a big night at the 40th annual Sovereign Awards at Woodbine on Friday.
Casse is a finalist for his fourth straight and seventh career outstanding-trainer title and has horses nominated in nine of the 10 horse categories. Josie Carroll, Brian Lynch, and Greg Tracy are the other finalists for outstanding trainer.
Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird has been elected into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in the Thoroughbred male horse category. He is joined by jockey Stewart Elliott, breeder Robert Anderson, Woodbine television personality Jim Bannon, and trainer Roger Laurin to make up the Thoroughbred class of 2015.
The five Thoroughbred inductees and five Standardbred inductees will be honored at the annual Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony Aug. 5 at the Mississauga Convention Centre.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine will kick off its marathon 133-day meet Saturday, highlighted once again by the 156th running of the $1 million Queen’s Plate on July 5.
The track will run on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the meet, with Friday cards starting April 24 and Wednesday night racing beginning May 27. There also will be four holiday Monday cards May 18, Aug. 3, Sept. 7, and Oct. 12.
Earlier this year, Texas racing lost its bid in court for historical racing – the electronic parimutuel game that plays like a slot machine – but for one night at least, Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, has hit a jackpot. For opening night Thursday, riding at the track is Hall of Famer Russell Baze, the winningest jockey in North American racing history.
Baze rides the first two races, the $50,000 Premiere Stakes aboard He’s a Bling and an optional claimer on Popalicious. Both horses are owned and trained by Henry Dominguez.
Midnight Hawk, who would have been a top contender in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap, will miss the race with a foot issue, according to trainer Bob Baffert.
Baffert worked Midnight Hawk six furlongs at Santa Anita last Saturday.
“He popped a foot abscess after the work,” Baffert said. “He isn’t coming.”
Midnight Hawk finished second by a neck to Race Day in the Razorback Handicap on March 14. Midnight Hawk’s defection will make Race Day a solid favorite this weekend.
Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., on Tuesday abruptly shuttered its sole wagering business in the state, an account-wagering operation, in protest of horsemen’s support for an amendment to legislation designed to pave the way for live racing in Virginia to resume.
After a fairly dismal 2013-14 racing season, betting, as well as the racing product in general, rebounded during the 2014-15 race meet at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
All-sources average daily handle during the 81-day Fair Grounds meet that ended March 29 was $2,605,025, a 10.2 percent increase over the $2,338,078 average from the prior meet, according to information provided Tuesday by the Louisiana Racing Commission.
Despite running two fewer days than in 2013-14, this meet outhandled the previous meet in terms of gross betting, $211,057,007 to $194,060,512.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Both Dortmund and One Lucky Dane, the top two finishers from the Santa Anita Derby, came out of the race well, and both are set to move on to the Kentucky Derby on May 2, giving trainer Bob Baffert, who also trains American Pharoah, three potential starters in the Derby.
Jacky Martin, a Hall of Fame Quarter Horse jockey who won the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs a record seven times, died Saturday at his home in Tulsa, Okla., according to a statement released by Ruidoso Downs racetrack.
A cause of death was not given. Martin was 59. He was paralyzed in a riding accident at Ruidoso Downs in 2011, which left him paralyzed from the neck down.
